F1 Prediction Competition 2012 – Round 14

A completely unpredictable first half of the season has seen the VitalF1.com front page poll fail to predict a race winner in 12 out of the first 12 races.

‘It’s impossible to predict this seasons Formula One, everything is just a guess’, those were the words or near enough of Sky Sports F1 commentator Martin Brundle during an eventful Bahrain Grand Prix and he was so right.

Hardly surprising then that the first half of this seasons VitalF1.com Prediction Competition has been so competitive!

But just like the real Formula One World Championship, the VitalF1.com standings have begun to settle down.The competition so far

In Australia we had 10 users claim maximum points, after two races, we still had a five-way-tie for the lead of the standings, Push The Button, Ant_F1podcast, eddiemitchellfan, last seasons champion Adelaide Blue and northstandmark had all scored 58 points.

But after China, northstandmark became our first outright championship leader, one point clear of Ant_F1podcast and three points clear of The Intimidator in third. Last seasons champion Adelaide Blue was fourth, four points from the top, while Push The Button was fifth, six points back.

It was all change again in Bahrain with The Intimidator taking the lead with a four point lead over Where’s Yer Caravan, Adelaide Blue climbed to third, Push The Button fourth and northstandmark dropping to fifth.

The Intimidator became the first person to take some kind of foothold on the championship, not only keeping hold of top spot in Spain but extending his lead, before The Intimidator then took his first race win of the season in Monaco to extend his lead to eleven points over Push The Button, who held on to second place ahead of third placed northstandmark, fourth placed LesTheChap and fifth placed Where’s Yer Caravan.

The Canadian Grand Prix saw northstandmark take second place in the standings, cutting The Intimidator’s lead down to 21 points, but an eventful European Grand Prix allowed The Intimidator to extend his lead to 30 points ahead of DJ who leapfrogged northstandmark into second place by a single point, the British Grand Prix saw the battle for second place continue with northstandmark and DJ exchanging places once more, but their individual battle only allowed The Intimidator’s lead extend to 41 points.

The controversial end to the German Grand Prix, brought about wind-fall for six users!

Whilst championship leader The Intimidator dropped points thanks to Lewis Hamilton’s puncture for running over debris, his lead over the chasing back shrank with second place northstandmark, third placed DJ, fourth placed eddiemitchellfan and fifth placed Bognor Red all closing the gap with the 1-2 finish of Alonso and Vettel.

There are no appeals in the VitalF1.com standings so post-race penalties didn’t affect things, which left The Intimidator with his lead cut down to 16 points.

With the top two both picking up 35 points in Hungary, there was no change at the top of the standings as F1 headed into the summer break.

The first corner crash in Belgium caused chaos for the racing drivers and for many in the prediction competition. Five users failed to score a single point, whilst leader The Intimidator had his lead cut by another ten points. He now stands just 20 points clear of eddiemitchellfan who has taken three race wins from the last three races.

JamboSteven89, northstandmark and DJ were battling for third place, separated by just six points going in to Italy and by the end of it northstandmark had not only taken third, but he had gone into second place and closed the gap to The Intimidator to 16 points.

Enter Today!

If you have not yet entered then all is not lost, the VitalF1.com prediction competition is just-for-fun and is free, so why not enter and join in the fun?

Once registered as well as entering the VitalF1.com Prediction Competition you can also join in with the discussion over on our VitalF1.com forum and discuss all the latest news on vitalf1.com via our articles.

How to play

The Vitalf1.com Prediction Competition is simple.

For every race this season, select two drivers and score points for the positions that they end the race in. That?s it. We did say it was simple!

Race weekend predictions must be made before Qualifying starts and you cannot alter your prediction once it is made (ie your first prediction will be used).

The points will be awarded in a ‘cross the line’ unofficial results basis (ie not the classified results), to avoid complicating the points results by having to amend them when the inevitable disqualifications, time penalties and politics come into play after the chequered flag has fallen.

Predictions

50% of the races we will simply be predicting 1st – 10th place, but for other races, predictions will be for 4th-13th or 10th-19th etc this will be clearly stated at the start of each race prediction thread.

To enable people to enter while they are away for any period of time, we have already selected what to predict for each race in advance, so if you wish to predict a couple of races at a time, or if you’re brave and want to predict the whole season from the start, you can!

Points Scoring

First example; the 2012 season begins in Australia this year and the predictions are for 1st – 10th place.

The two drivers you select will score the same points as they achieve in the official F1 standings.

So for example if you selected Vettel as your first driver, who goes on to win the race, you will score 25 points for him. If you selected Webber as your second driver who goes on to finish 5th you will score a further 10 points, which will score you a total of 35 points for the race.

Simple.

Second example; the third race of the season is the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai on April 15th. For this race predictions are for 5th ? 14th place.

This time the two drivers you select will score points based on where they end the race as follows:

So for example if you selected Vettel as your first driver again and he again goes on to win the race, you will score 0 points for him this time around. While a fifth placed Webber as your second driver will score you 25 points, which will score you a total of 25 points for the race.

Again simple!

The user who scores the most points over a race weekend will be awarded the ?race win?, if more than one user scores the same points during a Grand Prix then all those users who scored the most points will be awarded a ?race win?.

Standings

Standings are decided in points order.

If points are level, the position is settled on who has the most ‘race wins’. If points are still level, the position is given to the user who entered the game first.

Updates

Updates on the race results and the overall standings will be updated over on the forum and an article will also be published on the vitalf1.com.